1 Million Enter Basilica

Cardinals Set Arrangements For Funeral

April 6, 2005|By Laura King Los Angeles Times

VATICAN CITY — Seemingly endless lines of mourners wound their way through the ancient cobbled streets surrounding St. Peter's Square on Tuesday, an enormous public outpouring that coincided with a second day of talks among powerful Roman Catholic cardinals who will soon choose a successor to Pope John Paul II.

The total number of people entering St. Peter's Square on Monday and Tuesday reached 1 million, Italian officials said, an enormous number, even allowing for some repeat visitors. More than half a million were expected to make their way into the enormous colonnaded plaza and the vaulted basilica today.

The cardinals gave their seal of approval to elaborate ritual elements of Friday's papal funeral, which is expected to be the largest public event in the city-state's history. The cardinals, however, failed to set a date for the start of their conclave, the sequestered gathering at which the next pope will be chosen by secret ballot cast in the frescoed Sistine Chapel.

By church practice, the gathering, whose name comes from the Latin phrase for "with a key," must commence between 15 and 20 days after the pope's death. A planned break with tradition was disclosed Tuesday: When a new pope is chosen, it will be signaled not only with the customary puff of white smoke emanating from the chapel, but also by the pealing of the huge, deep-toned bell of St. Peter's. Black smoke signifies an inconclusive ballot.

The Vatican apparently wishes to avoid confusion similar to what arose at a 1978 conclave, when a problem with the additive used in the burning ballots turned the smoke gray instead of white, triggering general confusion and a cascade of frantic calls to the Vatican press office.

"We will try to make it work better," Archbishop Piero Marini, the Vatican's master of ceremonies for liturgical affairs, told reporters. "The bell will also ring so that journalists will have no doubts."

There are 183 cardinals, but only 117 of them -- those under the age of 80 -- are eligible to take part in the conclave. Ninety-one of the cardinals from around the world are already in Rome, and 88 of them took part in Tuesday's two-hour session, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

Marini said changes made by John Paul would create what he called a "looser lock-up" for the cardinals during the conclave. Instead of being shut inside Spartan quarters with sealed windows and shared bathrooms, they will stay in a modern hotel inside the Vatican and will be able to walk in the walled city's expansive gardens.

In keeping with practices that are centuries old, John Paul's body will be prepared for burial by placing it in a triple casket, one fitted inside the next, Navarro-Valls said. The innermost is of cypress, the second of zinc, and the outer one of fir.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday, the pope's body was on public view for a first full day, lying on a cream-colored bier while light filtered in through the basilica's high windows.

The Vatican and Italian officials said unprecedented numbers of pilgrims, as many as 18,000 people per hour, were filing past the crimson-clad body during almost round-the-clock viewing. Many had waited in a miles-long line for more than eight hours.

Bogdan Pilch, 49, a Polish businessman, arrived by train early Tuesday with a group of friends. They went directly to St. Peter's Square and got in line, emerging hours later with what they said was a sense of tremendous peace and satisfaction.

"It was something we had to do for this man who did everything for our country, and so much for the world," said Pilch, who is from Krakow, where the pope once served as archbishop.

Pilgrims will be able to continue filing past the body until Thursday night, when it will be removed and placed in the closed cypress coffin. The coffin will rest on the steps of St. Peter's during Friday's open-air rites. Vatican officials said that before the closing of the coffin, a white silken veil will be placed over the pontiff's face.

John Paul will be entombed in the grottoes below the basilica that have for centuries been the burial place of popes. Marini said the pope had expressed a wish to be buried underground, rather than in an aboveground tomb. The tomb is to be marked only by a simple stone slab engraved with his name and the years his life spanned.

Contained in the sealed coffin will be a small parcel of commemorative medals and a document about John Paul's life and pontificate, to be sealed in a lead tube.